Overview

'Re-framing Democracy and Agency in India: Interrogating Political Society' critically unpacks the concept of 'political society', which was formulated as a response to the idea of civil society in the postcolonial context. The volume's case studies, drawn from across India and combined with a sharp focus on the concept of political society, provide those interested in Indian democracy and its changing patterns with an indispensable collection of works, brought together in their common pursuit of highlighting the limitations of different core concepts as formulated by Chatterjee. Centred around five themes the relation between the civil and the political; the role of middlemen and their impact on the mobility of subaltern groups; elites and leadership; the fragmentation and intra-subaltern conflicts and their implications for subaltern agency; and the idea of moral claims and moral community this volume re-frames issues of democracy and agency in India within a wider scope than has ever been published before, and gathers ideas from some of the foremost scholars in the field. The volume concludes with a rejoinder from Partha Chatterjee.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ajay Gudavarthy
Publisher:   Anthem Press
Imprint:   Anthem Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.30cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9780857283504

ISBN 10:   0857283502
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   01 March 2012
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Why Interrogate Political Society? - Ajay Gudavarthy; Part I: Political Society and Protest Politics; 2. Political Society in a Capitalist World - Swagato Sarkar; 3. Antinomies of Political Society - Implications of Uncivil Development - Ajay Gudavarthy and G. Vijay; 4. Civil Society and the Urban Poor - Supriya RoyChowdhury; 5. Contentious Politics and Civil Society in Varanasi - Jolie M. F. Wood; 6. The Politics of a Political Society - Ranabir Samaddar; Part II: Political Society, Middlemen and Mobility; 7. The Pyraveekar: The 'Fixer' in Rural India - G. Ram Reddy and G. Haragopal; 8. Politics of Middlemen and Political Society - Stuart Corbridge, Glyn Williams, Manoj Srivastava and Rene Veron; 9. Widows' Organizations in Kerala State, India: Seeking Citizenship amidst the Decline of Political Society - J. Devika and A. K. Rajasree; Part III: Civil Society and/or Political Society; 10. Clubbing Together: Village Clubs, Local NGOs and the Mediations of Political Society - Tom Harrison; 11. Civic Anxieties and Dalit Democratic Culture: Balmikis in Delhi - Omar Kutty; 12. The Habits of the Political Heart: Recovering Politics from Governmentality - Aparna Sundar and Nandini Sundar; 13. Civil Society in the East and Some Dark Thoughts about the Prospects of Political Society - Sanjeeb Mukherjee; Part IV: Rejoinder; 14. The Debate over Political Society - Partha Chatterjee

Reviews

'[This book] is an informed debate on political society with Partha Chaterjee. [...] [It] mark[s] out a territory that needs attention from scholars on Indian politics as it is only upon naming and categorizing varied political practices that one can refine and clarify them.' -Ankita Pandey, 'Studies in Indian Politics'

Author Information

Ajay Gudavarthy is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has been a visiting fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Charles Wallace Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions